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Full-Text Articles in Law

Practice Makes Perfect? An Empirical Study Of Claim Construction Reversal Rates In Patent Cases, David L. Schwartz Nov 2008

Practice Makes Perfect? An Empirical Study Of Claim Construction Reversal Rates In Patent Cases, David L. Schwartz

Michigan Law Review

This Article examines whether U.S. district court judges improve their skills at patent claim construction with experience, including the experience of having their own cases reviewed by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In theory, higher courts teach doctrine to lower courts via judicial decisions, and lower courts learn from these decisions. This Article tests the teaching-and-learning premise on the issue of claim construction in the realities of patent litigation. While others have shown that the Federal Circuit reverses a large percentage of lower court claim constructions, no one has analyzed whether judges with more claim construction appeal …


Pathological Patenting: The Pto As Cause Or Cure, Rochelle Dreyfuss May 2006

Pathological Patenting: The Pto As Cause Or Cure, Rochelle Dreyfuss

Michigan Law Review

The Patent Act was last revised in 1952. The hydrogen bomb was exploded that year, vividly demonstrating the power of the nucleus; in the ensuing postwar period, the Next Big Thing was clearly the molecule. Novel compounds were synthesized in the hopes of finding new medicines; solid-state devices exploited the special characteristics of germanium and other semiconductors; as investments in polymer chemistry soared, advice to the college graduate soon boiled down to "one word ... just one word[:] ... Plastics." Over the next half-century, things changed dramatically. "Better living through chemistry" has begun to sound dated (if not sinister). Genomics …


Tribute To John Pickering, James Robertson Nov 2005

Tribute To John Pickering, James Robertson

Michigan Law Review

John Pickering was so much involved with both the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and with the bar of this city. It would take too long to recite all of the ways in which John supported and helped our Court and the Court of Appeals, but I will note that, in every one of the ten years since I have been on this bench, John has been invited to speak at the Law Clerks Luncheon Series. That is a big deal. The law clerks …


Administrative Law - Judicial Control - Appellate Review Of Federal Trade Commission Proceedings, David A. Nelson S. Ed. Jun 1959

Administrative Law - Judicial Control - Appellate Review Of Federal Trade Commission Proceedings, David A. Nelson S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

During its forty-five year life the Federal Trade Commission has gone through some difficult periods to emerge today as one of the fundamental instrumentalities of government in the regulation of business. Its vast powers and influence, well known to lawyers, will not be explored here. Rather, the purpose of this comment is to appraise the extent of control which the judiciary now exercises over the commission in its adjudicative functions, so as to offer some indication to the practitioner of the probabilities regarding the outcome of judicial review on an appeal beyond the full commission. The approach to be used …


Statutory Construction--Extra-Territorial Application Of Federal Statutes--Application Of Federal Tort Claims Act To Claims Arising In Foreign Areas Leased To The United States, Thomas L. Waterbury S.Ed. May 1950

Statutory Construction--Extra-Territorial Application Of Federal Statutes--Application Of Federal Tort Claims Act To Claims Arising In Foreign Areas Leased To The United States, Thomas L. Waterbury S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Decedent, an airlines employee, was killed in a plane crash at Harmon Field, Newfoundland, a base leased to the United States by Great Britain for ninety-nine years. The plaintiff, decedent's administratrix, brought suit in a district court against the United States, relying on the Federal Tort Claims Act as a waiver of federal immunity from suit. Judgment for the United States was reversed by the Court of Appeals. On certiorari to the Supreme Court, held, reversed. The claim arose in a foreign country and the FTCA specifically retains federal immunity from suit on such claims. United States v. Spelar …